ERBIL, Kurdistan - Civil rights activists from the Kurdish area of Iran (Rojhelat) have called on Kurds to go on strike in protest against the execution of Kurdish political prisoner Heidar Ghorbani on Sunday, along with many others who remain at risk of execution, a human rights watchdog said on Wednesday.
“The Islamic Republic once again handed over one of the true sons of Kurdistan to the execution squad. Such an action shows the continuation of the policy of denial and repression by the Islamic Republic,” the statement issued by Kurdish civil rights activists said, as reported by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights.
“In this regard, we, as a group of civil activists inside Kurdistan, call on the Kurdish people to go on a general strike in all cities of Kurdistan on Thursday, to protest and confront the policy of denial, repression and intimidation of the Islamic Republic,” they added.
Heidar Ghorbani, 48, was accused of being involved in the killing of three men affiliated with Iran’s Basij paramilitary forces. Arrested in October 2016, he was initially forcibly disappeared for three months, reportedly tortured, and held in solitary confinement before his execution on Sunday.
The accused was convicted of “armed rebellion against the state” and sentenced to death in January 2020 by a court in Iran’s Kurdistan province, despite the court admitting that Ghobani was never armed, according to the statement.
Ghorbani in a phone call that was published after his execution on Sunday asks people to go on strike, hoping it will help to keep him alive.
Hengaw published videos of hundreds of men and women gathered at his funeral “despite security threats,” singing songs and chanting slogans such as “martyrs don’t die” and giving patriotic speeches.
On the second day of his funeral, a man called Mohammad Mirza Rahmani talked about the state of Kurds in the Kurdish parts of Iran. “Dear God, you created us as Kurds, why don’t we have rights? We have everything; we have water, we have air, we have a flag, we have a flag."
He called on Kurds to be united. “Dears, if we don’t protect each other, no one will protect us.”
Kurdish political prisoners have gone on hunger strike to protest against their transfer to a maximum-security prison, Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) reported on Wednesday, adding that among them is Khalid Fereyduni from Mahabad.
Fereyduni, sentenced to life imprisonment, is serving his 21st year in prison, has been denied temporary leave, and was transferred to solitary confinement.
Tens of thousands of political prisoners are jailed in Iran on various charges including advocating for democracy and promoting the rights of women, workers, and ethnic minorities.
Ethnic minority groups including Kurds and Azeris are disproportionately detained and more harshly sentenced for acts of political dissidence, according to a July 2019 report from the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran, a concern that remains increasingly relevant.
